Brave New World
by rosewarren
Summary: Post-Journey's End. This time the Doctor gives Rose a choice. Stay with him on the TARDIS, or remain in the parallel world with 10.5. What will Rose decide?
1. Chapter 1

_O wonder!_

_How many goodly creatures are there here!_

_How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world_

_That has such people in't!_

-William Shakespeare, _The Tempest_

Davros is dead. The Daleks are destroyed. The Doctor stands inside the TARDIS, the reality finally overcoming him.

Is their destruction even possible? How many times before has he thought that, only to be brought face to face with the Daleks again? Ever since the Time War, there've been too many Daleks for his liking.

And now they're gone. An entire race of beings, gone.

Just like before. He's not the one who did it, not this time. But it was close enough to him as to make no difference.

The TARDIS, so recently the scene of amazing homecomings and happy reunions, is silent once more. Sarah Jane has gone back to her son. Jack has returned to his team. Martha and Mickey are gone as well, Martha to her fiancé and Mickey to a new life in his old universe. All is right with the world, but the Doctor's world has just changed drastically.

Hearing familiar footsteps enter the room, he turns to face Donna across the TARDIS control room. He knows what she's going to say and wishes very much that she did not have a Time Lord mind inside her human head.

"Go find her," Donna says without preamble. "You need to talk."

The Doctor frowns and twirls a control knob. "She-"

"She nothing!" Donna snaps. "Tell her what you need to tell her. Haven't you lost enough time?"

He shakes his head. "I don't know what I need to tell her. Not now."

Donna rolls her eyes. "You know what to tell her. Don't you?"

Clearly having a Time Lord mind has not changed Donna very much. "Donna..."

"I remember you that Christmas, right after you'd lost her," Donna says. "I remember how you didn't care if you lived or died. She's here now. She came back for you. Doesn't that mean anything?"

He hesitates, unsure of what to do.

"I saw her in the kitchen with her mum," Donna says gently. "It's a good time for friends to talk."

* * *

Rose is alone when he finds her. She's standing in the hallway, hands clasped tightly together. The Doctor takes in her shining hair and the way her eyes light up when she sees him. She's much too thin in that leather jacket, and he wonders how much she went through, trying to reach this universe at the proper time.

"Hi," Rose says with a shy smile. "I was just coming to find you." She does not mention that she knew where he was - she just couldn't work up the courage to take those final steps to him.

"Hi." The Doctor shoves his hands in his pockets. "So. We made it."

"I can't believe it," Rose says honestly. "I can't believe we stopped it. All those worlds, saved!"

"Well, we had some help, this time," he allows.

This reminds her of something, and her expression changes to a frown. "I can't believe you knew Jack was alive all this time!" She slaps his arm as she speaks, and it's like they've not been apart at all.

He coughs. "Yes. Well. I didn't want to upset you."

She starts to speak, and then stops and takes a deep breath. "It's okay. We'll talk about Jack later."

The Doctor is relieved to have Jack tabled for now, but the word 'later' reminds him that there is more that needs to be said.

"I missed you," he says without meaning to.

Rose smiles hugely and hugs him tightly, just the way she used to.

"I missed you, too!" she says. "You wouldn't believe all the stuff I had to do to get here."

He allows himself to hold onto her for a moment, just a moment, and breathes in the scent of her hair. "I can't wait to hear about it," he says, gently letting go of her. "You must have been brilliant!"

She beams. "Oh, maybe. I don't know."

"You were, Rose Tyler!"

"Yeah, I was," Rose says, in the tone of someone who is trying to be modest.

He clears his throat. "So."

"Shall we go and talk?" she asks, and he is startled by how forthright she is. He wonders what Rose Tyler has gotten up to during her time in Pete's world.

"Yeah," he says, wincing at the nervousness in his own voice. "Let's talk." His hearts beat at a frenzied pace, and his blood thrums in his ears.

She leads the way to the library, a dark, paneled room set with leather couches and chairs. A small fire burns in the fireplace, and the lights are low. The Doctor wonders if the atmosphere is strictly necessary, and glances around his ship in annoyance. The lights brighten a bit in response.

Rose drops down onto a chair. She's sat there many times before with him, and as the Doctor sits beside her it feels like no time has passed since the last time they were together in this room.

"We watched that _I Love Lucy_ marathon, remember?" Rose seemingly reads his mind as she curls up on the chair. "The one where she's at the candy factory, eating all the chocolates? I laughed so hard!"

"Lucy's always good for a laugh," the Doctor agrees. They stare at each other for a moment and then Rose starts to smile.

"What?" he asks in surprise.

She grins. "All the time and effort I put in to come back, and we're sitting here talking about _I Love Lucy_."

The Doctor smiles back. "What should we talk about?"

And just like that a silence descends upon them. Rose flushes. She opens her mouth and then shuts it again.

"Well," she says. "There was the coming darkness and all. I knew you'd be able to help."

He sighs. "Only barely."

"Maybe, but we did it."

"You were amazing. I don't even know how you managed to do it all!"

"There's time enough to hear that story," Rose assures him. "I started trying to get back almost the minute I landed on the other side. I never stopped trying."

"Why did you come back?" the Doctor asks, and he feels sorrow at the look that comes over her face.

"To come back." Rose says it with some surprise. "To stay with you. I promised you I'd stay forever."

"But things have changed, haven't they? Time has passed, and you've matured and become so much more than you were. You don't have to stay just because you made a promise to me."

She shakes her head. "It was more than a promise." She stares him in the eye, telling him what she won't yet say out loud.

The Doctor stands up and walks around the room. "It's not just you and me anymore."

"It was always you and me," she says incredulously. "Traveling around, having adventures."

He runs a hand through his hair. "Things have changed."

She shakes her head, not understanding. "Stop saying that things have changed. They haven't. Mum is here, but she won't stay. She'll want to go home, as soon as she can."

"Oh, Jackie." He'd forgotten that Jackie was still aboard, to be honest. The woman had been blessedly quiet so far. "Where is she?"

"The kitchen. So if it's not Mum," Rose continues, "you don't need to worry. I love Donna. She's amazing, absolutely amazing! We could have so much fun together!"

"Rose." The Doctor turns to face her. "Donna and I...don't worry about Donna. I'll take care of her."

"But," she prompts him. When he doesn't respond she adds, "You weren't so reluctant to talk before."

That surprises a small grin out of him. "You weren't so challenging before."

She shrugs. "Grew up some, I guess."

"Yes." The Doctor tries again. "You're forgetting about...about him."

Rose bites her lip. "I haven't. He can stay, too."

The possibility has been whirling through the Doctor's mind for long hours now. He's slightly amazed that she hasn't thought of it. He braces himself and says the words out loud.

"You don't have to stay with me. You could go back. With him."

"Back?" Rose asks blankly.

"Back to your world. With..._him_. The other...the other me."

"_Stay_ with him?" Rose stands up as she speaks, the better to face him. "I came back for you, remember?"

"But if you want to stay with him, I'll understand." The Doctor presses forward, determined to state her options. Rose deserves the best, and he will make sure she gets whatever it is she deserves, not what she thinks she wants right now. She's still young, so young.

"How can you think I wouldn't stay with you?" she demands. "I've spent years - years - trying to get back to you! If you knew half of what I've done - I had to do A levels! I learned physics!"

He smiles a bit at the indignation in her voice. Clearly learning physics had not been something she'd been very happy to do. "Rose." He wants so much to have Rose stay with him forever. He still can't believe she's here with him. She can't stay, though. She's human, and a new chance for her has opened up, and he needs to make sure she understands it.

"He's human like you are! You could stay with him and have a life together. A normal life."

"Right, like anything with you would ever be normal."

"Rose."

"Why would I leave you?" she demands.

"Why?" he asks incredulously. "To have a life! A normal, human life! To stay with your family! To be human."

"I don't want to do that," she says in a small voice. "I want to stay with you."

For the first time he wishes her faith in him was not so strong. He sighs and tries again. "It's him or me, Rose. Once the decision is made, we'll close the breach and it can't be undone."

"But that would be fine!" Rose says eagerly, grasping at a solution to what she thinks is the problem. "We could all travel together! Us and Donna...and him." She says the last negligently, as though the other Doctor is someone not worth mentioning.

But she is lying. The Doctor saw how they laughed and talked together on the TARDIS as he was saying goodbye to the others. He'd watched the other Doctor - the other version of himself - smile and flirt with Rose. He'd watched Rose smile and flirt back.

Whether she was consciously aware of it or not, she'd felt a connection with the other Doctor. That connection could become something greater.

"We can't do that," the Doctor says quietly. "He wouldn't want to stay here like that."

"Like what?"

"Rose, do I need to spell it out for you?" He doesn't call her a stupid ape, but he's pretty angry. "Like a second rate companion! Watching you and I have fun, knowing that he's human and not a Time Lord."

"He could have fun with us!" Rose flares angrily. Unspoken is her wish to be more than as simple companion to the Doctor. She didn't come back to have fun, she came back for him. To see if the sparks and chemistry they'd shared would grow into something else.

She didn't come back so things could be as they were. She came back to make them better.

"It would never work," he says quietly. "And he wouldn't want it either. Think about it, Rose. I'll never judge you, no matter what you decide. But I want you to be very sure."

"What do _you_ want?" she demands.

"I - what?"

"What do you want, Doctor?" she repeats. "You've certainly been busy, making sure everyone goes where they should, everyone does what they're supposed to do. But you haven't said what it is you want. Do you want me to leave with Mum? Do you want to travel with Donna and him? Would you rather have their company than mine?"

"I'm a Time Lord with a TARDIS. He'd be a human with memories of abilities he no longer has. A TARDIS he no longer has. There's no way that would work - for either of us."

"But...you're the last one! He'd be family."

"Doesn't matter."

"So you don't care about what happens to him, not really."

"That's, that's not the point!" he exclaims. His hands move across his hair again, more agitated than before.

"Then what _is_ the point?"

"The point is that I'm giving you the option to have a normal life."

"You're not!" she says angrily. "You're asking if I want to stay with someone I don't know who happens to look like you, just because he'll die one day and you won't."

"He's not just someone who looks like me, Rose. He is me."

"He isn't you." Rose says this quickly. "He may look like you and talk like you but he's someone else."

"But you would be as happy with him as you were with me."

"You want me to go," she accuses him. "You wish I hadn't come back to you."

"No!"

"Then you want me to stay." Rose crosses her arms and glares at him.

He can't speak. He only shakes his head. "Rose, you've got it wrong."

She's so angry she can barely speak. "Wrong? _Wrong_? Then tell me what I need to know."

He doesn't respond. He just stands there, looking at her her with a helpless look in his eyes.

"I don't believe this," she says in a low voice. "All that I've done, and you still can't tell me what you want. Not what I want. Not what you think I need or deserve. What _you_ want."

Whether or not he would, she'll never know. He doesn't speak, Rose turns and stalks out of the library, leaving him standing alone.

* * *

Amazing things, genetic meta-crises. Bringing into being creatures like himself. Something newer and different and yet the same as he was before. His memories are still there. He can remember going to sleep in his own bed as a small child. He remembers stealing the TARDIS and running away - what an impulsive thing to do, even for him. Memories and thoughts and feelings are intact, but now they're housed in a body that will die very soon. He has one heart. One heart! No matter how much Donna always went on about being human, he never thought it looked like fun.

And now he is one. Human.

He doesn't think Rose will bother too much with him, and he can't blame her. He's not the one she came for, is he? He's not the one with a time machine. He may still be the Doctor, but he knows that he's no longer a Time Lord. He knows she won't want him, but it doesn't stop him from thinking about it. He may have grown from a genetic meta-crisis, formed from a human and an extra hand, but he is still the Doctor. And he can do things that the Time Lord Doctor, cannot, will not, do.

Ah, there it is. The guilt he felt for the Time War. Nice to know some things never change. And he's done it again. Destroyed the Daleks. He had to do it, just like he had to the first time. He won't apologize for that. He did what had to be done. The other Doctor would have died rather than do that. He preferred to live and save humanity at the same time.

He knows Rose. He knows what she's thinking. He knows why she came back. He knows himself, too. The other Doctor will be planning something. He may not know what it is yet, but odds are that he won't like it.

The only question left is what will happen to Rose. If he's willing to be blunt enough about it, who will end up with Rose. His other self may be full of finer feelings, of nobility and self-sacrifice, but he is not.

He will do what has to be done.

-o0o-

She can't believe how gullible she's been, how naive. All these years of working and trying to get back to this place, and he all but tells her he doesn't care. Rose is aware that she may not be thinking very rationally, but she's heading in search of Jackie, to tell her mum that they're going home and to hell with Time Lords who have the emotional range of a teaspoon. If she could fly the TARDIS on her own she'd sail straight for the breach and back to what has been home for the past six years.

"He'll never say it, you know."

Rose stops and looks around, startled. She's gone unthinkingly to the control room. Old habits die hard. On first glance the room is empty, but then she sees the other Doctor. The Doctor in blue, she's been calling him in her mind. He's standing there, leaning against the TARDIS console. His arms are folded against his chest. Once more she is taken by surprise by how alike they are.

"What won't he say?" If it were anyone else, anyone at all, Rose would be on her guard, would be harder and more self-protective. But this...this is the Doctor. Even though he's not the one she came for, even though she denied it to her Doctor, he _is_ the Doctor.

"He'll never tell you how he feels."

Rose frowns. "I don't need words to know how he feels."

The Doctor in blue scoffs and rolls his eyes. "Don't you, Rose Tyler? What was he gonna say to you at Bay Wolf Bay? You told him you loved him. And then what?" He pushes himself off the wall and comes closer.

Rose flushes at the memory. It's special and private and he has no right to it, even if it was, in some way, him there with her.

"You can tell him that you love him all you want," the Doctor in blue continues, moving to stand very close beside her. Rose has to tilt her head back slightly to keep her eyes on his. "You can cross universes for him. You can risk your life and choose to live out your lifespan beside him, and he will never say the words you want to hear."

Rose swallows, mesmerized by the look in his eyes. "Stop it," she says softly.

"Do you want to know how I know?" he continues. "Because he was me, I was him, until just a few hours ago. I know."

Rose flinches.

"I felt it, he felt it, but it's not in him to say it out loud, Rose. You know that. He just can't say it."

"It doesn't matter. I don't need the words." But she does. She needs those words more than anything. Once she would have been happy just knowing, with things unspoken, but everything is different now.

"He will never say it," the Doctor in blue says. "But I will."

She shakes her head. "Don't. You know you're not the one I came back for."

He moves in even closer, and despite what she's told him, Rose feels a pull of attraction. They're the same, they are. Same hair, same eyes, same voice. Only this Doctor has a different gleam in his eye.

It's been six long years since Rose has seen the Doctor. She tries to control herself, but her face lifts up to his. His hand comes up to smooth the hair away from her face. His eyes are on her lips. Her Doctor had never looked at her that way before, and Rose has to force herself to remember what she's doing there.

"You -"

"A handful of words," he says, lips coming so close to her own. "Just...five."

"Stop," she says, trying to regain control.

He bends down, whispers in her ear. His breath is hot on her skin. "I love you, Rose Tyler."


	2. Chapter 2

Donna's mind is filled with images. Algorithms, mathematical equations, scientific theories. The knowledge of how to build a TARDIS of her own is right there. She could start tomorrow if she wanted to. Maybe she will.

In her memory there is now a planet filled with a red sky. A citadel sits in the mountains, and though she has never been there, she knows the way there. She's been on that mountain before. Songs she has never heard sing in her mind. People she has never met, people dead for centuries, cycle through her mind.

The TARDIS floats in the Time Vortex, and she can _feel_ time as it passes by. She can sense the TARDIS in a way she never could before. She can sense the presence of other people. It's amazing and frightening and exciting.

There is so much she needs to do now, so much to see. Her fingers itch for a pen and paper so she can start writing things down. She heads for the control room so she can start.

She is distracted from that task only by the Doctor in blue. He's talking to Rose, and they're standing so close together that they could touch at any time. Donna holds her breath, waiting, hoping for something that she can't define.

And then Rose turns around and leaves, a look of distress upon her face. Donna looks back to the Doctor in blue. Left alone, he looks grim and almost angry. Donna walks over to him, treading warily, the way you might around a wild animal.

"What were you saying to her?" Donna asks.

He turns to look at her. "What should have been said a long time ago." He walks beyond Donna and towards the depths of the TARDIS.

"Where are you going?" Donna asks. "We haven't even had a chance to talk!"

"We just killed the entire race of Daleks and their creator," is his response. "Nothing more to be said after that, is there?" He leaves as well, brushing against the Doctor in brown as he goes.

Donna shakes her head, glancing at the Doctor. "You're both moody, aren't you?"

The Doctor is moving the TARDIS controls. "Don't look at me. He's part you."

"And part you!" Donna freezes. "Good lord, it's like he's our...our offspring or something!"

"No! Don't say that!" the Doctor exclaims, appalled.

"Well, it beats Looming, at any rate."

* * *

Jackie is sitting in the kitchen, right where Rose left her. She has no desire to explore other parts of this ship. She had no interest in stepping outside when they were on the world she used to call home. All she wants is to get home to her husband and her child.

She takes a sip of tea and sighs. Pete will be worried sick, and she can only hope that six-year-old Tony will be too busy with school and friends to notice that she has been gone for some time. She was willing to leave them to go after Rose, but now that everything is safe and done she needs to get back where she belongs.

It's hard to accept that Mickey is gone. She's watched him grow up, watched his heart get broken several times. Rose broke it, most of those times. It hurt to say goodbye but she's happy knowing that he's doing what he wants. Mickey will be his own man now.

It's the Doctor she has her eye on now. He's broken her little girl's heart more than once, and now there are two of them to do the job. She doesn't trust either one. No matter what happens next, Jackie suspects Rose will be hurt.

Even as she thinks the words, Rose is coming into the kitchen.

"What's happened?" Jackie demands, ready to go and do battle on her little girl's behalf.

"Nothing's happened," Rose lies. "We're still in the Time Vortex, waiting to get through."

Jackie shakes her head. "I know you, Rose. What's going on?"

"He doesn't want me after all," Rose says quietly, looking down at the tabletop. "Doesn't matter what I've done to get back here, he wants me gone."

Jackie would be less than honest if she didn't admit to herself that a wave of relief washes over her at those words. All she wants is to go back home, and to bring Rose with her. But she loves her daughter, and so she tries.

"Did he tell you that, sweetheart? Is there somebody else? Is it...is it Donna?" Jackie whispers the last part, and makes Rose smile.

"No. There's no one else. But he's got it in his head that I deserve better."

"Well, you do," Jackie says before she can stop herself.

"Mum! You knew what I was planning to do! The...the other Doctor - the one in the blue suit - is human. He thinks I should stay with him."

"The new Doctor thinks you should stay with the old one?" Jackie tries to catch up.

"No. The Doctor thinks I should stay with the new one."

"But...why?"

"Mum!" Rose says in gentle exasperation. "'Cos he's human. We could have a life together."

Hope flares in Jackie's eyes. "Is that possible?"

"He's giving me a choice. Stay here on the TARDIS or go home with the new Doctor. He'll bring us back home if we want."

"Home? To Pete?"

"Yeah."

"Me and you and the Doctor? The other Doctor?"

"He's human," Rose explains. "Human lifespan. We could have a life together."

"Oh, Rose!" Jackie's excitement in short-lived.

"Mum! He isn't the Doctor! He's someone else. He's not who I came for."

"Seems to me they're one and the same," Jackie says shrewdly. "Only one has a time machine and one hasn't got anything. But he still cares for you - he watches you every moment you're nearby."

"I didn't come back for this," Rose whispers.

Jackie sees the temptation that Rose won't acknowledge. A human Doctor would possibly be more to her than a Time Lord, and that possibility frightens Rose more than she can admit to herself. Jackie takes a deep breath.

"Did he tell you that he loved you?" The answer will settle everything.

Rose shrugs. "He did. But it was the wrong one. Wrong Doctor. So what do I do about that, Mum?"

* * *

Rose finds her Doctor - the one in the brown suit - in the control room. He smiles, clearly happy to see her.

"Hello."

"Hi." Rose walks over and settles in the worn seat, just as she always did. For a moment they're back where they used to be.

"Do you still think I deserve a choice?" she asks him.

"I know you do," he says easily. He's had time to think and come to terms with his decision. "If you want to stay here, with me, we'll bring your mum home. He'll have to stay with her, on that world. He and I can't exist together. Not two of us with one TARDIS."

"And if we do that? What happens to him?"

"He'll manage just fine. Wouldn't be the first time. I imagine Jackie might look after him."

Rose looks amused at that. "Maybe. And what happens to us?"

He looks at her. "Then we'll stay on the TARDIS and have adventures, just like old times."

"Just like I want?"

"Just as you want," the Doctor answers, and watches her closely.

Rose nods. Her world has been turned upside down and back again in the past hour, and now what she wants is no longer as clear. She stands up and, on impulse, hugs him. He hugs her back, tightly.

"I'll see you in a bit," she promises, and leaves him to wonder what she's going to do.

He's not left to wonder alone, because just minutes later the Doctor in blue comes in. The Doctor has the strangest sensation of watching himself approach.

"That suit needs a shirt and tie," he says without thinking.

The Doctor in blue rolls his eyes. "Whatever. Tell me what you're up to."

The Doctor raises an eyebrow. "Sorry?"

"You can't play coy with me. I'm you! What did you say to Rose that made her so upset?"

"Who says she's upset?" the Doctor in brown demands. "She's fine."

"She's upset." The other Doctor says this emphatically. "She was upset before and she's upset now."

"I didn't mean to make her upset."

"Well, you did. What are you planning?"

"I'm planning for our futures. As soon as we locate the breach and land in the other universe we need to be ready."

"Be ready." The Doctor in blue touches one of the controls. "Ready for what?"

"You know for what."

"Nope, I don't. Tell me."

His feigned casualness is the last straw.

"You shouldn't exist!" the Doctor says angrily. "You should not be here! But you are, and you're a genocidal maniac!"

"I did what had to be done. What you were afraid to do!"

"You killed the Daleks! Destroyed an entire race of beings!"

"Beings who would have destroyed all of humanity," the Doctor in blue says wearily. "You didn't have the guts to do it. I did."

"This was never about guts!"

"It's always about that! On the Gamestation you chose death and cowardice over killing the Daleks. You left that bit to Rose. To Lynda with a y. To Jack. To Astrid. To all the others who lost their lives. How many companions have you lost because you made them into weapons for you to aim?"

"Don't you dare quote Davros' ravings to me," the Doctor in brown says quietly. "You're out of control."

"Am I? Or am I just human? That's it!" he exclaims, seeing the look on the other Doctor's face. "I'm_ human_. You hate that. You hate that because...because I'll die and you'll have to watch? That can't be it. You hate it because I'm human and so is Rose! You think she might choose me over you! That's it, isn't it? And you've decided to take the offensive and push her away - again - before she can hurt you." The Doctor in blue looks very satisfied, as if he's just solved a complicated mathematical equation. "Which of us is the coward?"

"I've given her a choice. Me or a life with you back on the world she came from."

The Doctor in blue blinks in surprise. "Seriously?"

"Yes. Seriously."

"What did she say?"

"Nothing yet." The Doctor in brown checks the computer. No closer to finding the breach than before.

The Doctor in blue frowns, sitting down and staring at the grated floor. This irritates the other Doctor for no reason at all.

"What's the matter with you, hmm? You get Rose."

"Well, thank you very much! What makes you think she'll have me?"

"She'll have you," he says shortly.

"She came back for you. You. Not some inferior copy."

"You are not a copy."

"No, I'm not. But I'm not what she came back for and you know it." The Doctor in blue frowns. "Why are you doing this? You can't just tell her you want to be with her? End this now."

"It has to be her. She has to choose. If we push her hand she'll feel obligated to choose one over the other."

"You're asking her to do that anyway."

"But it needs to be her choice."

The Doctor in blue shakes his head and stands up. "You're pompous and overbearing. And a complete idiot."


	3. Chapter 3

Rose takes a deep breath. Since she got to this world it seems like all she's done is go back and forth to different places, putting out fires and saving the world. On the TARDIS she's just been following people around - looking for Jackie, looking for the Doctor, looking for Jackie again.

She feels an impulse to search out the room she used to use. She can see it in her mind - pink walls and unmade bed, dressing table strewn with cosmetics. There are things in that room she thinks she would like to have back, memories of travels with the Doctor and with Jack, souvenirs of a life long since gone. She even starts to take the remembered path towards that room.

In the end Rose decides to leave it be. She's no longer the young girl who lived in that room, and she's learned that people are what's important, not possessions.

"Not things," she murmurs to herself. She's alone in a quiet hallway of the TARDIS, and there's no harm in talking to herself. "It's people that count, not stuff."

She loves this ship, loves traveling. But for the past six years, her thoughts have been centered on the Doctor. Not his ship, not the running for their lives, not the adventures. Just the Doctor. She resolutely pushes away the words that the Doctor in blue whispered in her ear. If he can say them, then her Doctor can say them, too. She doesn't allow herself to wonder why her Doctor hasn't said them before now.

She loved him as a sad man with big ears and a black leather jacket, and she kept loving him when he turned into a skinny bloke with great hair. She loved him on Bad Wolf Bay, and even though he didn't say the words back to her she knows he has feelings for her. That's enough for right now.

And just like that, she has her answer.

Rose takes off down the hallway, trusting in the TARDIS to show her the way.

"The Doctor," she says. "Where is he?"

The TARDIS obligingly leads her to the Doctor in brown.

"Doctor!"

The Doctor in brown looks up from his workbench. A small contraption full of orange wires is in front of him, half assembled or half-taken apart, Rose can't tell.

"Breach detector," the Doctor says, holding up his sonic screwdriver. "I'm just tweaking it. Might help us find the breach a bit quicker. This is harder than I thought it would be," he admits.

Rose pays no heed to his explanation. "Doctor."

"Yes, Rose?"

"I'm staying with you."

"Well, I under- what?" He blinks at her, and Rose almost laughs at the look of amazement on his face.

"I'm staying with you."

His smile turns into a big grin. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" she says indignantly.

In her dreams of a happy reunion there was also a kiss or hug or declarations of affection, but just then the breach detector begins to beep.

"We're getting closer!" The Doctor scoops it up and hurries for the door. "See you in just a bit!"

* * *

Rose checks on her mother. Jackie is still in the kitchen, sitting at the table with a cup of tea in front of her. She's chatting with Donna, who is enjoying hearing about Jackie's life on a new world.

"Sounds absolutely marvelous," Donna is saying cheerfully. "Especially the part about being so rich!"

"It's been nice," Jackie allows. "Pete is wonderful, and now that we have Tony it's even better. He's almost six now," she adds. She starts to pull out a photo to show Donna but realizes that her bag and wallet are back home. When she and Mickey set off after Rose she didn't think she would need identification, especially since she was officially dead on Earth.

"Mum." Rose steps into the kitchen and smiles at the two of them.

"Sweetheart." Jackie stands up and hugs Rose. "Where have you been? I've been sitting here for ages."

Rose smiles. "You could have come looking for me."

Jackie shudders. "No thanks. I've had my fill of this ship. What's taking so long?"

"We're in the Time Vortex," Donna explains. "Floating around until we can locate the breach between our two universes. Once we find it we can slip through, drop you off at home, and seal the breach back up."

"And then that's it, yeah? No more ways through."

"In theory," Donna hedges. "You never know."

"I know that well enough," Jackie says proudly. "My Rose is the one who got the Dimension Cannon working."

Rose smiles. "Mum, you're always bragging about that."

"How many mothers can say the same?" Jackie grows serious as she looks at her daughter. "Am I going back alone, Rose? Are you staying?"

Donna holds her breath.

"Yeah," Rose says softly. "I'm stayin'."

* * *

"It's not like I didn't know she would choose him," the Doctor in blue is saying to Donna. "I wasn't born yesterday."

Donna snorts with laughter.

"Okay," he allows. "I'll give you that one. But still. She doesn't care that I'm the same - that I'm better! She sees what she's used to seeing."

"I don't blame her," Donna sighs. "But you can stay too. Stay with us."

"I have some pride, Donna! More, maybe, now that I'm human. Blimey, but you lot are full of pride, aren't you?" He sighs. "I won't stay and watch them live happily ever after. I can't. And anyway, he would never let me."

Donna glances around. They're standing in one of the hallways of the TARDIS. Now that she understands how the ship works she can truly appreciate the way they're always given the privacy they need. No one is around, and Donna is sure that TARDIS won't allow them to be overheard.

"We could build a TARDIS of our own," she whispers.

He blinks. "What?"

"We could build a TARDIS! Ourselves! You and me. Leave them to it and travel the universe."

For a moment his eyes gleam. Then he shakes his head. "Ah, Donna. Once upon a time I would have jumped at the offer. This body won't live long enough for a TARDIS to grow. I haven't got a few thousand years."

"No," she says slowly, thinking it through. "You've got maybe fifty or sixty years, if you're lucky." She ignores his grimace. "But. But...if you shatterfry the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabilizer to a foldback harmonic of 36.3, you accelerate the growth by the power of 59!"

His mouth is hanging open. "Did you just think of that? Did you come up with that all on your own?"

She grins. "Brilliant Time Lord mind!"

The Doctor in blue shakes his head. "He would never go for it. I can't be trusted. He thinks I'm a genocidal maniac."

"He what!" Donna says indignantly. "You're no such thing!"

"That's what I told him! He wants to dump me on the other universe, let me be its problem instead of his."

"He wouldn't," Donna says. "He couldn't."

"And he's the one who was prepared to spend the rest of his existence caring for the Master." The Doctor in blue shakes his head again. The more he thinks about it, the more this plan will work for him. "You and me. Traveling the universe together."

"The DoctorDonna!"

"We can do this, Donna. We _can_. It'll be brilliant. Think of the adventures we'll have!"

"We won't tell him," she whispers, lowering her voice just in case the TARDIS does not approve of this scheme. "We'll drop Rose's mum at home and act like you're staying behind with her. When he and Rose go back inside the TARDIS, I'll wait until they're out of the control room, and let you back in. And once the breach is closed we'll tell him our plan. We'll take a piece of coral and grow our TARDIS, and then we'll be on our way. I mean, we can always get together with them once in a while."

"Yeah, Christmas."

"Summer holiday."

"Guy Fawkes day," they both say together, breaking out into simultaneous grins.

"Do we have a deal?" Donna asks.

"Oh, yes! Deal."

* * *

Despite her happiness, Rose knows there is something she must do. Her mum and Donna are back together, chatting like old friends. Jackie has been convinced to go to Donna's bedroom, and when Rose left them they were drinking from a bottle filled with clear amber liquid and giggling madly.

Her Doctor is still in breach detection mode. Rose doesn't mind, because the sooner they find the breach, the sooner she will be assured that she is indeed staying with him, that this hasn't all been a dream. The sooner that happens the sooner she'll lose her mother, but she's had long years to accept that.

The Doctor in blue is not in the control room. The two Doctors seem to have reached a tacit understanding of mutual avoidance. Rose finds him in the library, staring out of a window that really should not be there.

He glances over as Rose enters the room.

"Hello."

"Hi." Rose clears her throat.

"We're not there yet, are we?" His voice holds no emotion. No curiosity or fear.

"No. Not yet."

"Didn't think so." He continues to stare at her, leaving Rose flushed and uncomfortable.

"I'm stayin' here," she says. "With him."

"Yeah. I know." He nods once and glances away. The hurt is evident on his face, but he makes an attempt to hide it.

"I'm...I'm sorry if I hurt you. It's just that you're not the one I came back for."

He frowns slightly. "I am, you know. We're the same person, more or less. Well, less one heart and more of mortality. But still."

"I just want you to understand that," she says earnestly. She wants, needs him to understand. "It's not that I think you're not him-"

"But you do think that," he interrupts her swiftly.

"I know you're not." Rose holds his gaze, and the five words he'd said earlier to her hang between them. The fascination she feels for him is there, and try as she might Rose can't completely dispel that.

He seems to sense this, and despite his resolution to seize his fate himself and not have it thrust upon him by his counterpart, he steps closer to Rose. How could he not try one more time?

"I have one heart," he says quietly. "One life. I'll grow old, the same as you. I could spend that life with you."

"But you're not the Doctor," Rose says softly, and he nods and steps back. Her words sting him.

"Then promise me you'll be happy, Rose Tyler."

"I...I will."

"That's all I want." He manages to call up a smile. "Well, then. I'll see you in a bit."

"Doctor," Rose blurts out before he can leave. "Wait."

He turns around, somewhat surprised to be addressed as the Doctor when she'd only just finished telling him he wasn't.

Rose founders when she meets his eyes. "Good luck," she manages to say.

"Yes," he says, and waits.

Rose shakes her head slightly. "What?" She hadn't asked him a question.

"Yes," he says again. "The answer is yes." And he walks away, leaving Rose alone.

* * *

"We're here," the Doctor in brown announces. "Ready?"

"Ready!" Rose says cheerfully. She's coaxed Jackie into the control room.

"Are we back?" Jackie asks anxiously.

"We are," the Doctor in brown assures her. "Back home. Back to the world you've chosen, back to-"

"Oh, thank goodness!" Jackie interrupts him. "Let's go!"

"All clear." He stands back and watches as Jackie hurries to the door. She's followed by Donna and the Doctor in blue. Rose moves slowly, stopping to smile shyly at him. He smiles back, though there is perhaps some sadness in his expression. He knows that she is choosing him, but he also knows that someday he will have to say goodbye to her.

Rose holds out her hand and he takes it, walking outside after the others.

Jackie is looking around in confusion. "Where are we?"

The Doctor clears his throat. "Er...Norway."

"_Norway?_" Jackie says. "Not London?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Well! Fat lot of good this is! Back of beyond, bloody Norway! I'm gonna have to phone your father."

"He'll be here before you know it, Jackie," the Doctor in blue says. Acting in his guise of a newly-human Time Lord who's going to spend the remainder of his life in exile, he moves to stand closer to Jackie.

"Yeah. There's lots of time to call Pete," Jackie says softly, remembering suddenly that she has to say goodbye to her daughter.

Rose smiles through sudden tears. "It's okay, Mum. I'll be okay."

Jackie hugs her tightly, not bothering to hide her tears. The Doctors and Donna all look away uncomfortably.

"Goodbye, darling," Jackie whispers. "I'll take care of this one, don't worry." She gestures with her head towards the Doctor in blue, who looks like he doesn't know how he feels about that.

"Goodbye, Mum. I love you." Rose gives her mum a final kiss. She watches Jackie move back, getting away from the path of the TARDIS.

"Are you ready?" the Doctor asks. Donna glances at him. There's a note of uncertainty in his voice. He's not entirely convinced that Rose will stay with him after all.

"Yeah," Rose responds.

Donna turns to the Doctor in blue, looking at him questioningly. He nods once. He's ready. All they need is to wait for Rose and the Doctor in brown to get in the ship.

The Doctor takes a step towards his ship, ready now to take Rose away, but Rose is looking at her mother.

"Rose?" he questions softly.

Donna looks sharply at Rose, than at the Doctor in blue. This isn't going to plan.

"Wait," Rose says in a voice that cracks. "I just need a minute."

"If you need to say goodbye to your mother, we don't have much time left. The breach will be closing."

Rose doesn't look over at her mother, standing a few meters away with the Doctor in blue. It's hitting her that this is truly it. She's said goodbye to Jackie before, prepared to stay with the Doctor. Every time, she's found her way back to Jackie. This is different. This will truly be forever.

No more Jackie. No watching Tony grow up. Her family will be lost to her.

She has to make sure it's worth it. The Doctor is worth it all, she knows that, but damn it, she needs to make sure.

She looks back to her Doctor.

"Last time we were here you said something. Do you remember?"

He starts to speak and stops.

"The worst day of my life, that was. What did you say?" Rose holds his gaze with hers, willing him to answer.

The Doctor nods briefly. "I said 'Rose Tyler'."

"And how was that sentence gonna end, Doctor?" She holds her breath, waiting for the words that will decide her future. It's so tenuous right now - she doesn't know which Doctor she wants and needs. She only knows that both of them need her, in different ways for different things. She needs them for different things, and it's time she decided what is most important to her.

"Does it need saying?" the Doctor asks quietly, and Rose steps back in shock.

"You won't. That's your way, isn't it? You give me a choice but you won't say the words."

"Rose, no-"

"Tell me what you were going to say."

He is silent.

The Doctor in blue stands with Jackie, wishing he had his coat. It's chillier here in Norway, colder than he remembered. Maybe it's the fact that he's only wearing a thin t-shirt under his jacket. Maybe it's that he's human. Maybe it's that the last time, although so clearly memorized, he was only an image on this beach. His memories have added detail and smells and sensations where none existed. The trauma of the event, he supposes, and is surprised to find that his false memories are pretty close with the reality of the beach.

"What are they saying?" Jackie asks him.

He shrugs. "Dunno."

"Don't you? But he's...you're him!"

"Not anymore. Grew out of his spare hand, yeah. Now that I'm here? Two separate beings."

Jackie shakes her head. "Just when I think _nothing_ about you could get any weirder."

He shrugs, not listening. Does he want Rose? Of course he does. As it happens, this human body wants her very much. But if she's chosen to stay with the other Doctor, then the plan to run away with Donna and grow a new TARDIS is the best one for him. The sooner Rose says goodbye to her mum the sooner he and Donna can start.

Rose steps away from the TARDIS and the Doctor and Donna. She walks back to the Doctor in blue, slipping slightly on the sand. He stands where he is, watching her approach with his hands stuck in his pockets.

She comes to a stop in front of him. "You said the answer was yes," Rose says. "What was the question?"

He has a slight smile on his face. "I suspect you're thinking about that question right now."

She has a question in mind, a frightening, exhilarating question. Whether it's the correct one for his answer is a chance she's going to take. "Say it again," Rose orders in a low voice.

He blinks in surprise, her words the very last thing he's expecting. Donna and the Doctor look uncomfortable and slightly upset. He wonders what's happened. Donna meets his eye and shakes her head. She's not sure what Rose is doing. The Doctor in brown looks worried.

He looks back at Rose. Her eyes are clear but hard. She's come to some decision already that none of them know anything about. Her blonde hair is blowing in the wind. She's so bloody beautiful, and brilliant, and capable and fearless. Fantastic from the moment they met, and she's even more so six years later. His desire for a TARDIS abruptly leaves him.

He swallows. "I love you."

For a long moment she stares at him, wide-eyed. Then she grabs him, pulls him down to her and kisses him. For a second he's perfectly still. Until this moment, he'd thought she'd be staying with the other Doctor. He'd made his peace with it. Then, as the kiss continues, he wraps his arms around her and kisses her back enthusiastically.

Both are breathing hard when they break apart.

"I made my choice," she says softly. "Damn you for being able to say the words."

He takes a chance. "Never gonna leave me?" he asks.

"Never say never ever." Her voice is serious but there is the beginning of laughter in her eyes, the beginnings of hope.

He laughs softly and kisses her again. She might regret this, but he knows he won't.

Donna abandons her plans with a sigh. It would have been fun to have her own TARDIS, but he belongs here with Rose. She smiles instead, because this is what they both want. The Doctor in brown has accepted the inevitable, and walks into the TARDIS. She follows, casting one last affectionate glance back at the embracing couple. She raises a hand to Jackie before closing the doors.

The sound of whooshing draws Rose and the Doctor in blue out of the haze of kissing. They stare at the place where the TARDIS had been.

"They left while you two were snogging," Jackie says. "He never was one for goodbyes, was he?"


	4. Chapter 4

Norway is bloody freezing this time of year.

As the three of them head towards civilization, the Doctor notes that he's no longer impervious to the cold. The wind whips right through his suit and makes him shiver. Rose and Jackie, he notes, are no better off. He's like to take off his jacket and offer it to Rose, but then he'd probably catch pneumonia or pleurisy or some other human disease and be on his deathbed by morning.

Rose folds her arms across her chest and keeps walking, one foot after the other, following the path to the nearest village. She looks a bit shellshocked. He suspects he looks much the same.

Jackie has finally gotten through to Pete on her mobile, and is wasting no time on how she feels.

"He just left us, here on the beach! Darlig ulv Stranden, just like before! You'd think we could have landed closer to home. Can you send a car or a zeppelin? I don't care which, whatever is faster. It's bloody cold and we're not dressed for the weather."

Jackie hangs up and sighs. "Your dad is sending a zeppelin, but they can't be here until morning. The fog's too bad in London for anything to take off."

"What do we do, then?" the Doctor asks. Not only is he new to being human, he's new to being a permanent part of this universe. All the rules have changed, and at the moment he's not the one with all the answers.

"Well, there's a village about a kilometer that way." Rose points to the east.

"How do you know that?" he asks, impressed. "There aren't any signs."

The Tyler women look at him with expressionless faces.

"We've been here before," Rose says tonelessly, and it's only the first of many times in this world that he will make an idiot of himself.

The walk is brutal. No one passes by, and as the afternoon quickly descends into evening the weather gets colder. There is no snow falling, but between icy rain and a strong wind, they're all in rough shape. Jackie hails the sight of the village in relief.

"Finally! Come on. There's a small hotel in the village. Shouldn't be too crowded this time of year."

"Could do with some tea," Rose manages from between chattering teeth. She glances at the Doctor, who has not said much on the walk. He's not looking too well.

"You okay?" she asks him. When he doesn't respond she speaks again. "Doctor?"

He looks at her in surprise. It's the first time she's called him Doctor out loud.

"Yeah," he says. "I'm fine." He ruins this image of self-reliance by coughing.

"Hurry up," Jackie urges. "Your dad's already called ahead. We'll have rooms waiting."

That is enough to make Rose and the Doctor quicken their steps.

The hotel is small but charming, decorated in muted blues and greens and reds that were much brighter at one time. There is a fire burning in a corner fireplace, and Rose and the Doctor head straight for it. They stand there warming their hands, not speaking. Rose steals a few glances at him as he stares at the flames. The fifth time she does this, he turns his head to look at her. She smiles nervously and looks away.

He sighs.

Jackie signs them in, hands out keys, and disappears. "I'm taking a long hot bath and ordering room service," she tells Rose. "See you in the morning." She's gone before Rose and the Doctor can answer.

Jackie's room is on the third floor. Rose and the Doctor have been put on the fifth in adjoining rooms. Rose doesn't know if this is coincidence or her mum at work. Certainly Pete would not be too eager to have her share a room with any male, Doctor or not.

"You ready?" she asks, feigning a calmness she doesn't really feel.

The Doctor nods. "Yeah. Ready."

Rose is in room 221. She opens her door, pauses and looks at him.

"I'm gonna try and get warm, okay?"

"Of course. Me, too."

"See you in a bit, then?"

"Ah, yes. Absolutely." He's not entirely sure why this should make him feel nervous, but he nods bravely and watches her disappear into her room.

He opens the door to 223, locks it behind him and notices the adjoining door. It's locked on Rose's side, but no sooner does he realize that than Rose is unlocking it from her side. She opens the door wide.

"Yup. Adjoining rooms."

He stares at her for a second. "I'm just gonna take a shower," he says.

"Yeah. Me, too. See you later." Rose closes the door but leaves it unlocked.

The Doctor takes a hot shower that lasts approximately 9 minutes, thirty-seven seconds. He may have one heart, but his sense of time seems to be unimpaired. All the better to keep track of how long he has left to live.

As he towels himself dry in the small bathroom he tries to figure out what he's feeling. His emotions are all over the place, and he can't get a grasp on them. Maybe that comes from being part Donna. He's relieved that Rose chose him. Beyond relieved, actually. Elated and triumphant and smug. She chose him.

She chose him because he told her he loved her. He does love her. The same impulse that allowed him to destroy the Daleks also lets him say what he wants to say. There's no filter in his mind, making sure he keeps himself sufficiently aloof from his companions.

He loves Rose.

So why isn't he completely happy? He's got Rose, but he hadn't counted on keeping her. In his mind he'd accepted that she would remain behind on the TARDIS, and he'd started looking forward to traveling around with Donna. They were going to make the best of things. Instead, he's here in a small hotel in Norway, about to embark on an existence he knows nothing about.

The thought comes suddenly, and it makes him stand perfectly still. Rose might not be enough to make that all right.

* * *

Rose sits on the closed toilet seat in her bathroom, wrapped up in an enormous towel. Her hair, still wet from her shower, drips onto her shoulders. She's staring at her reflection in the mirror.

For six years she fought to reach the Doctor. She forced herself to go back to school and complete classes that were impossibly hard to understand. It was only with the help of her coworkers at Torchwood that she managed it. She helped design the very device that would propel her across dimensions and save all the known universes. She found the Doctor and was never, ever going to leave him again.

She hadn't counted on a second Doctor. One who was human. She hadn't counted on a Doctor who could tell her he loved her. Between the realization that she couldn't, just couldn't, leave her family forever, and the fact that the Doctor in brown couldn't, just couldn't, tell her that he loved her back, her choice had been made.

She hadn't even gotten to say goodbye.

Her hair is dry and she's almost dressed when there's a knock on the door that adjoins her room with the Doctor's.

"One second!" she calls, and pulls on the black trousers and purple top that she's been wearing for far too long now.

Rose clears her throat and opens it. He's standing on the other side, wearing his blue trousers and dark red t-shirt. His hair has dried and it's shiny and clean. With no crazy alien hair product in it, it falls smooth across his forehead.

"You busy?" he asks, and Rose shakes her head.

"Wanna come in?"

"Yeah." He walks in and sits on the edge of her bed.

"You okay?" Rose asks. "I guess you feel the cold differently now."

"I'm as human as the next guy," he says, a sad attempt at a joke. "I'll be okay."

"Mum just called me," Rose says. "She says room service is very good. Are you hungry?"

He shakes his head. "Not really. We could order something, though, if you want." His voice rises slightly at the end, uncertain.

"I'm not hungry either." Rose sits down on the other side of the bed.

The Doctor stares at his hands. "I turned the television on while I was getting dressed."

"Anything good?" she asks politely.

"Didn't understand any of it." The Doctor smiles, but there's no humor in it. "Norwegian."

Rose nods jerkily. She can't stop pleating the hem of her shirt. "The first time I heard French in this world I was really surprised. I was used to the translation circuit in the TARDIS."

"Yeah," he says softly, a world of pain and loss in his voice. "That's gone now, isn't it?"

"Of course, French wasn't anything like the first time I had to communicate with an alien race." Rose tries to lighten the mood. "That was a good deal harder."

"Why did you do it?" he asks abruptly. "Did you mean it?"

She doesn't bother to pretend. "You told me what he couldn't. Did you mean it?"

In response he takes her hand and tugs her over to him. Rose braces herself, but all he does is press her palm against his chest.

"One heart, one life," he says quietly. "Both yours."

-

* * *

They have sex for the first time in a hotel in Norway. You can't call it making love. It's a tangle of want and need and desire and anger. In the end Rose doesn't know if it's better now or worse. He doesn't know whether he's angrier at being human than before.

If there are no more declarations of love and promises of forever, at least there is no shouting or tears. They fall asleep as they are, exhausted beneath the thin blanket. They wake during the night, separately and at different times. Quick snatches of alertness in the darkness. In sleep they move towards each other, her hair tangling and brushing his shoulder. His hand lies across her rib cage.

Jackie wakes them that morning with a knock on the door.

"Rose! The pilot just called. Our flight will be here soon! Hurry up!"

They're both jolted out of sleep. They hear Jackie knocking on the door of the Doctor's room. Quickly, without speaking or looking at each other, they get dressed. Rose pulls on her leather jacket with a sigh, thinking she will never wear it again. It smells of smoke and fear, long travel across the universes.

He finds his trousers and shirt and walks back across to his room for his shoes. He is slow to pull on his jacket. He feels ridiculous without a proper shirt and tie, without some kind of armor to help him now. He's opened himself up to something foreign, and he has no idea what is supposed to happen next.

They ride down in the lift together, not speaking or touching. It's not an awkward silence, at least not to Rose, but neither one seems to be able to think of something to say.

They meet Jackie in the lobby. She looks well-rested and happy, even without fresh makeup or new clothes. She leads the way to the roof, where a small zeppelin is hovering.

The Doctor steps back in surprise. "This is our ride home?"

"No planes in this universe," Rose reminds him, and he climbs up the short walkway with some misgivings.

The zeppelin belongs to Vitex. It's small but well-upholstered, and there is a pilot and one attendant on board. Both seem to know Jackie and Rose quite well, and the attendant fusses around Jackie, insisting she sit down and eat something.

"Miss Tyler?" she hazards. "Can I get you anything? Or your friend?"

Rose shakes her head. "I'm fine for now. This is the Doctor."

Something moves in the attendant's eyes. She's heard of him. "Nice to meet you," she says with great respect in her voice. "May I get you something?"

He shakes his head. "No, thanks."

The attendant disappears into a forward area, leaving them alone.

Jackie introduces him to the wonders of cherry-lite and apple-pear flavors and he obligingly sips some of each.

It's a wintry morning but the sun is shining, and Rose spends most of the flight looking out the window at the clouds. He spends it wondering how he's going to be able to stand living in a place where zeppelins are the fastest means of transport. How will he be able to live in one place, with time running only in a straight line and not looping back in on itself?

For the first time, he regrets telling Rose that he loves her. Not because he doesn't love her. He does. Without that link, it would be easier to run when they reach London. Run and keep running, and never stop until he outruns the specter of death that is now hanging over him.

"Home!" Jackie says suddenly. "I never thought I'd see it again."

The Doctor glances out the window. Big Ben can be seen in the sunlight. The visibility is so good that he is able to pick out Canary Wharf, and the Torchwood Tower.

"This is home," Rose says quietly. "London."

He nods, still focused on Torchwood. "I remember."

"Yeah, but the last time you were in a zeppelin we had others things to think about," she points out. "Plus it was dark."

That last time he'd been thinking about all the senseless deaths that had taken place, but mostly he'd been trying not to think about how Rose looked in her short black dress.

He shakes his head. "That we did." He looks down at the traffic, at the tiny shapes of people living their lives all over London. This place is now his home. He could have been working on growing a TARDIS of his own, right now, and instead he's chosen this universe.

"All these people, going about their business, not even knowing they live in a different universe."

"Well, I think they suspect something these days," Rose says humorously. "What with the Cybermen and then the darkness coming through."

"They're still humans though, aren't they? Defending their home from aliens when they need to, living their lives when they don't."

"They're strong and brave," Rose agrees.

"O brave new world, that has such people in't!" he murmurs.

"I've heard that before."

"It's Shakespeare. From _The Tempest_."

They don't speak any more until they touch down on the landing pad at Vitex's corporate building. It's on the roof, and Jackie exits first, waving away the pilot's assistance. She runs towards a man in a dark suit standing with a small boy.

"I'm home!" she cries, arms outstretched. The boy and the man - it's Pete Tyler, of course, and his son - rush to meet her.

The Doctor exits the zeppelin next. He hits the ground with a sigh of relief, glad to note that London is considerably warmer than Norway, even up on the roof. Turning around he holds his hand out to Rose, but while he was looking around she climbed down by herself.

They stand there, watching Jackie's happy reunion. He doesn't know what to say. She doesn't either, and they end up staring furtively at one another, much like they had done on the beach. So much has passed between them already, and so much still needs to be spoken out loud.

Rose doesn't know what will happen, doesn't know what will be said.

She holds her hand out to him anyway, surprised and pleased to find that he was holding his out to hers at the same time. She curls her fingers into his hand, feeling the strength of it, the warmth of his skin. The steady single beat of his heart through the veins in his wrist. She moves to stand close beside him, their hands entwined and their bodies touching as they face the unknown together.

He strokes her fingers with his thumb.

"So," he says softly. "This is Pete's world."

Some things are unknown. That's okay. No," Rose says. "It's ours."


End file.
